Windy winter wonderland hits region

Monday

Dec 31, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Michelle Kingstonmkingston@fosters.com

DOVER — It’s beginning to look a lot like ... winter.

After Thursday’s storm dropped nearly a foot of snow in the region, mother nature decided to top the area off with an additional four to eight inches Saturday night, creating a mess on the roadways, but a winter wonderland for New England.

Sledding hills were full of families in snowpants, knitted hats and mittens, enjoying the best of what the “fluffy white stuff” offers.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Amy Childs said on Sunday afternoon.

Icicles hung off the roofs of capes, colonials and other homes on Sunday and footprints were found around snowmen rolled together in front yards from busy children playing outdoors during school vacation.

Despite messy roadways, reported accidents were few and far between, with local police departments claiming roads to be relatively quiet.

A 20-vehicle accident on I-93 northbound near exit 22 and exit 23 on Saturday afternoon did cause major traffic issues, but the five people who were taken to local hospitals were not seriously injured.

A fifteen-year-old girl was hurt in a snowmobile accident at 66 Agamenticus Road in South Berwick, Maine early Sunday afternoon. Her grandfather, South Berwick Fire Chief George Gorman said the town was calm after the storm. Just before deciding to head to Powderhouse Hill to see if there was any action going on there, his fifteen-year-old granddaughter fell of her snowmobile in his backyard.

“She got a little too close to the bush here and hooked her ski on it and tipped over,” he said. “She went off the sled and her knee got caught under the handle bars and twisted her leg.”

She was transported to the hospital, but reportedly did not have any broken bones.

Areas including Route 4 and Route 236 in South Berwick, Maine and Rollinsford had snow drifting through open fields and onto the roads on Sunday due to high winds causing cars to continue to travel slowly to their destinations even on the partly sunny afternoon.

AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said the area was seeing close to 40 miles per hour winds.

“Portsmouth saw wind gusts as high as 33 miles per hour Sunday morning,” Pydynowski said.

Temperatures were also dropping close to the teens during the afternoon and according to Pydynowski, they will not be creeping up to above freezing any time soon.

Pydynowski is predicting the next set of precipitation to be snow flurries on New Year’s Day.